Sunday, February 5, 2012

The Hispanic Immigration Debate

http://causaoregon.org/about/Causa are a Latino immigrants rights group in Oregon. They state that their programs address issues that impact the every day lives of Latino immigrants and their families such as affordable and accessible education, housing, and health care, living wage jobs, transportation, safety, and immigration. The organisation was founded in 1995 and claims to have defeated dozens of anti-immigrant bills. The website contains fact sheets, reports and studies. The staff is made up of Hispanic Americans and non Hispanic Americans and the website has a Spanish translation option. They have both a twitter and a facebook page, this allows more people to access the organisation. I think the website is devoted more to helping the Hispanic community than to aggressive action which I think is a good thing.

http://www.minutemanproject.com/
The Minuteman Project describe themselves as a multi-ethnic immigration law enforcement advocacy group, operating within the law to support enforcement of the law. They seem eager to distance themselves from being seen as racist, including phrases like 'multi-ethnic' in their mission statement. The project was founded in 2004 by Jim Gilchrist, a marine corps veteran. He is a registered republican. The website sports a picture of Jim Gilchrist in military esque gear in front of the US constitution, this emphasises the fact that they are working within the law. The minute men patrol the US/Mexican border. They are against movements to provide maps and water to illegal immigrants. They have been accused of violence towards illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border. They have faced a lot of resistance and there are often protests when they publicly speak.